Central Oregon’s outlook in 1914: favorable

Compiled by Don Hoiness from archived copies of The Bulletin at the Des Chutes Historical Museum.

100 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 12, 1914

The General Outlook (Editorial)

Somebody once said the darkest hour is just before the dawn. While we do not anticipate any immediate burst of sunrise, so far as commercial development is concerned, the present rather easy going state of affairs gives opportunity to cast up accounts with Dame Fortune. Taking all in all, the result is decidedly gratifying.

On the broad seas of national business the outlook is brightening. The uncertainties of the pending legislation have passed. The new tariff, income tax and banking laws have gone into effect. Nothing awful has happened: in truth, so far as general business is concerned, no far reaching effects, good or bad are apparent. In other words, the decks of commercial life are cleared, the sails are set, a favorable breeze is blowing and a prosperous passage is assured.

Locally, there is nothing disturbing, and much that is heartening, about the outlook. “Things have been quiet;” granted. But the best is yet to come.

The crop outlook for Central Oregon was never brighter; ample moisture, an early spring and an increasing acreage insure good production.

The railroads may or may not build — probably not from present indications. Whichever they do, Bend and Central Oregon is advantaged. If Bend remains the terminal, we are benefited, because of the business which centers here. If the roads go on, an outlet to the south would be vastly beneficial, especially to lumbering interests, and location upon an important transcontinental road would enhance the town’s importance.

Never before has the timber outlook been brighter. By the transactions of the last six months all the pine lands of this portion of Central Oregon have been blocked up by their various owners, so that the big companies are ready to undertake milling whenever conditions warrant. Freight rates have been arranged satisfactorily to all concerned. An improvement of eastern and middle western markets alone is required to insure mills here, and the constant betterment in national conditions assures such an improvement before long.

The wool outlook for Central Oregon was never better. A creamery, of very direct benefit to farmers, is assured. Those who have put many thousands of dollars in Bend before are investing more thousands. Creditable new buildings are rising.

75 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 12, 1939

The Gift to Germany and Japan (Editorial)

A Washington columnist reports that the federal government is selling to Germany and to Japan at less than 40 cents a bushel of wheat that it has purchased from American growers at 70 cents or more. At the time the sales were made the domestic price was around 70 cents,

The purchase price, of course, was paid with money raised by the American taxpayer. He paid in his 70 cents and his government got back 40 cents. The 30 cents difference was his contribution to Germany and Japan.

How, Mr. Taxpayer, do you like that?

Campbell Twins best egg hunters

Doris Jean and David Dean Campbell, twins who failed to secure a single egg last year when, as three year olds, they joined in a search through Drake Park, won first places in the junior division of the Lions Club Easter egg hunt yesterday by turning in a total of 55 colored eggs.

Winners in the senior division, for children under eight years of age, were Elton Rowland, with 33 eggs, and Jackie Craven, who checked in 23 eggs.

David Kribs, 21 months old and dressed in his Sunday best, turned in the prized golden egg, so effectively concealed that it was not found until the hunt was about over.

Benny plans to continue work

Jack Benny, radio and screen comedian, said today his admitted guilt on federal smuggling charges should serve as a “darn good lesson” to others but that it had not affected his future as a high paid entertainer.

Tired, worn and unshaven upon his return from New York, where he pleaded guilty to smuggling and was fined $10,000, Benny said that he walked into the office of his radio sponsor in New York and offered to cancel a contract worth several thousand dollars a week.

“The offer was not accepted,” he said.

Concerning his future plans he said he would continue his film and radio work while reporting to probation officers here in compliance with stipulations of his year-and-a-day suspended sentence.

The specific charge was that he was instrumental in smuggling a $2,131 diamond and gold bracelet for his wife, the Mary Livingston of his radio program.

“It was a foolish thing,” he said, “but it was something anyone could get into. No I wouldn’t advise anyone else to buy any ‘bargain’ jewelry. It’s been a darn good lesson.”

50 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 12, 1964

Grissom, Young selected to ride 2-man spaceship

Space veteran, Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom and former test pilot John W. Young will ride America’s first two-seater Gemini spaceship on a three-orbit trip around earth, about Christmas time.

Grissom, who rode a Redstone rocket on a 15 minute sub-orbital journey July 21, 1961, and said frankly he was “scared a good portion of the time,” will become the first to make two flights into space.

Sidney Poitier becomes first (African-American) to win top Oscar award

Sidney Poitier, who struggled from the poverty of a Caribbean tomato farm, modestly accepted his achievement today as the first (African-American) to win filmdom’s top acting award.

The 40-year-old Poitier won the Oscar Monday night for his performance of a footloose handyman who helps a group of nuns build a church in “Lilies of the Field.”

“I’m glad I won it for my kids” Poitier said. “I will put the Oscar wherever they want it.”

Poitier, who was born in Florida, but who was raised on a tomato farm in Nassau, was unable to attend school until he was 11 years old. Two years later he was forced to help support his family. When he was 16 he moved to New York City and did a series of odd jobs, including ditch digger, store clerk, pin-boy in a bowling alley and longshoreman.

He finally joined the American Negro Theater and worked as a janitor in exchange for acting lessons. He advanced to small roles and moved on to stage parts in “Lysistrata,” “Freight” and “Anna Lucasta.”

In 1949 he made his film debut in “No Way Out,” later starring in “Blackboard Jungle,” “The Defiant Ones,” “Porgy and Bess” and “A Raisin in the Sun.” He was nominated for an Academy Award in “The Defiant Ones” in 1959, losing to Charlton (Ben-Hur) Heston.

25 YEARS AGO

For the week ending

April 12, 1989

Man gets kicks shoeing horses

Some people say that when you’re in love, it’s easy to overlook the others’ faults.

That’s the effect horseshoeing has had on Larry Davis of Bend, who has loved doing this work for the past 47 years.

He said his passion for horseshoeing allows him to overlook the dirt and grime and heat of working with horses in the summer and the dirt and grime and cold of doing the same thing in winter.

Maybe it’s the freedom to come and go as he wants, to work just as hard and as long as he wants. Or perhaps it’s the satisfaction of helping an animal and its owner. Maybe it’s knowing he’s done a good job and the joy of seeing the benefits.

Chances are it’s a little bit of everything.

“I shoe horses seven days a week, and I don’t get tired of it. I get to take something messy and out of shape and make it look good,” Davis said while deftly filing a hoof smooth and even.

Davis is constantly hurting from painful run-ins with his horse customers. He said he’s had a lot of broken bones and hoof tracks on his body over the years.

“Most of the time when you get kicked it’s your own carelessness,” he said.

But the years of experience have taught Davis how to hold a horse’s leg when shoeing the animal to prevent getting kicked. And his grandfather, who taught him the business, passed down a few tricks of the trade.

When Davis was just 13 years old, his grandfather took him into the shop primarily to keep him out of trouble, he said. And he liked it from the start.

Now his two sons, Joe and Buck, are following in their father’s hoof prints, er, footsteps. Joe shoes full time, and Buck, the wrestling coach at Bend High School, does it part time.

Davis also was a wrestling coach for a spell when he taught sixth grade at Pilot Butte Junior High School. He retired in 1985 after teaching for 28 years because a long time neck injury was getting the best of him.

“Doing this is easy,” he said. “Sitting at a desk hurts.”

But even when he was teaching during the day, he shod horses at night.

“People would ask how I could do this after teaching all day, I said, ‘How can I not do this?’”

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